
Class TfM&'K ) 

Book 1S2 



( 

COFFEE, 

TEA AND CHOCOLATE: 

THEIR INFLUENCE UPON THE HEALTH, 

THE INTELLECT, 
AND THE MORAL NATURE 

OF MAN. 



TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF 
A. SAINT-ARROMAN, 

Late Resident Surgeon of the Civil Hospitals, 

Late Sub- Assistant of the Military Hospital, 

and a Member of the Medical Society of Emulation at Toulouse. 



ff*V 



PHILADELPHIA: 

TOWNSEND WARD, 45 SOUTH FOURTH STREET. 
1846. 






**■ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by 
TOWNSEND WARD, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District 
of Pennsylvania. 



Crissy & Markley, Printers. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Preface, 1 

Introduction, 6 

FIRST PART. 

NATURAL, COMMERCIAL, POLITICAL, AND ARTISTIC 
HISTORY OP COFFEE, TEA AND CHOCOLATE. 

CHAPTER I. 

Of the Coffee Tree. 

Different methods of culture, .... 8 

Varieties of coffee. — Way to recognise them, . 10 

Mocha coffee, ib. 

Martinico coffee, 12 

Bourbon coffee, '...;.. 14 

Coffee of Gaudaloupe and Cayenne, . . . 16 

Haiti (St. Domingo) coffee, . . . . ib. 

Coffee of Brazil, 17 

Coffee of Manilla and Jamaica, ib. 

Coffee of Cuba and Porto-Rico, . . . . ib. 

Coffee of Java and Sumatra, .... 18 



IV CONTENTS. 

By what signs can the consumer recognise good 

coffee 1 ? 20 

Introduction of coffee into Europe, . . .21 

Coffee-houses of London and Paris, ... 26 

Garraway's Virginia coffee-house, London, . . 27 

Coffee persecuted by the king of England, . ib. 

The Dutch procure the first Mocha coffee tree, . 28 

Plantations at Java, . . . . ib. 

Coffee a la Sultana^ 29 

Roasting of coffee, ...... 30 

Preparation of coffee, ib. 

Manner of preserving the flavour of coffee, . 32 

Essence of Mocha 33 

Of coffee-pots, ib. 

Coffee trade, exportations, ib. 

Consumption of coffee in the different nations of 

the world, 34 

Duties laid upon coffee, 35 

Price of coffee, ib. 

Consumption in France, ib. 

The coffee-houses of Paris, .... 36 
Coffee-house of St. Germain market, Procope, of 
the Widow Laurent, Voltaire. — J. J. Rous- 
seau. — The Encyclopedists, . . . .37 

Coffee-house of the Regency and the chess players, 38 

"When did coffee-houses spread greatly in France? ib. 

Prediction of Madame Sevigne, . . . 39 

CHAPTER II. 

Of Tea. 

Importation of tea into Europe, . . . .42 

Small consumption of tea in France, . . 43 






CONTENTS. V 

Why tea is so greatly in vogue among the English, 44 
Tea beneficial to the English, injurious to the 
French, ib. 

CHAPTER III. 
Of Chocolate. 

National, Artistic, and popular history of chocolate, 47 

Customs of the Spanish clergy, . . . . ib. 
Ancient poem upon the different compositions of 

chocolate, 49 

Customs of the Indians, 51 



SECOND PART, 



HYGIENIC PRECEPTS, 



CHAPTER I. 

Of Coffee. 
Its chemical composition, 
Its action upon man in health, . 
Its efficacy upon the sick man, 
Its effects upon different temperaments, 
Its influence upon the moral nature, 
Different changes produced in coffee, 
Coffee au lait, . 

Pure Milk, 

Coffee of chick-peas and succory, . 
Method of purging with coffee, . 



53 
55 

57 
60 
63 
66 
ib. 



ib. 
70 
ib. 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER II. 

Of Tea. 

Its chemical composition, 71 

Tea trade, exportation, 72 

Action of tea upon man in health, . . .74 
Effects of tea in certain diseases, ... 76 
Its influence upon the moral nature, . . .77 
Bad effects of the use of tea, .... 79 

CHAPTER III. 

Of Chocolate. 

Its composition, ....... 81 

Means of discovering adulterations, according to 

Orfila, 83 

Effects of chocolate upon the health, . . .84 

Different kinds of chocolate, .... 85 

Effects of chocolate upon the moral nature, . . 87 



NOTE. 

The Coffee Slips, a poem, by Mary Lamb, . 89 



PKEFACE 



COFFEE, tea and chocolate are in such 
esteem amongst all peoples, that of all 
the ordinary alimentary substances their study 
is the most highly interesting. They sum up, 
so to speak, the prophylactic hygiene of the 
health and life of man. There is no nation, 
the most barbarous as well as the most civil- 
ized, that does not possess a kind of partiality 
for these liquid aliments, and does not make 
an enormous consumption of them. Only, all 
nations do not at the same time equally esteem 
the three. The Frenchman, the American 
and the Arab love coffee. The Englishman, 
the Chinese and the Hindoo idolize tea. The 
Spaniard, the Italian and the Mexican vene- 
rate chocolate. However this diversity of tastes 
may be, the three substances in question have 
played a very great part in the political, scien- 
tific and commercial world. 



If the sugar question has excited violent 
controversies in legislative assemblies, if the 
excise and the duties upon salt have occasion- 
ed popular seditions; if opium has just been 
again a subject of hostilities between China 
and England, coffee, tea and chocolate have 
changed the customs of certain nations, modi- 
fied or enlarged the relations of peoples, and 
even overturned empires. Do not suppose 
that I am here about to construct fairy tales 
in the German style, or, that I am willing, for 
the pleasure of making gigantic comparisons, 
to change reality, to alter facts and cover 
science with the variegated cloak of romance. 
It is medicine, in the purely hygienic point of 
view ; it is history, using the word in its most 
rigorous acceptation. Thus we know, accord- 
ing to the work of a Spanish author,* that in 
1709 the removal of coffee gave rise to a 
bloody struggle between the people of Holland 
and Batavia. The Independence of North 
America, does it not date from a tax that the 
mother country wished to lay upon tea?y 



* Bond, Jean della — On the use and abuse of coffee. 
Page 19. 

t Dictionary of Medical Sciences, Vol. 55, page 41. 



Lastly, Marradon* informs us that in the be- 
ginning of the seventeenth century every kind 
of intercourse was prohibited between the In- 
dian women and the ladies of New Spain. 
The latter were accused of learning sorcery 
from the former, who, being taught by the 
devil, committed an infinite number of crimes 
under the influence of chocolate, of which they 
were great mistresses. j* 

In the composition of this work I have de- 
sired to present in a single monograph what 
it is indispensable to know concerning the ad- 
vantages and disadvantages of the three ali- 
mentary substances the most in fashion. The 
use of them has become so greatly extended 
in all classes of society; there is generally so 
little agreement respecting their effects — one 
pretending that coffee occasions nervous dis- 



* Dialogue concerning chocolate between a Physi- 
cian, an Indian, and a Citizen, Page 58. 

t Marradon puts these words into the mouth of a 
Spanish citizen, who says also that he heard a Jesuit 
preaching in the church of the City of Mexico relate a 
number of homicides committed by the Spanish ladies 
taught by the Indian women, who, by the use of choco- 
late had correspondence with the devil. 



eases, another that tea promotes digestion, but 
causes pricking sensations in the limbs, a third 
that coffee is heating and binding; the very 
persons that are the greatest consumers of 
them, are, sometimes, so little able to judge 
of the circumstances that recommend or forbid 
them, that I have thought I was making an 
useful book in presenting to the public my se- 
rious researches into so important a matter. 

In the last three centuries, men of eminence 
in science have composed volumes upon these 
very subjects. Upon these very subjects dis- 
tinguished physicians of different nations had 
sharp encounters. Do not exclaim; this is 
still history. Mappus, Marc, in 1693,* Anda- 
lon, Andre, in 1703,*]* Mons. Voseley, and Ben- 
jamin, in 17854 wrote at length upon the good 
and bad effects of coffee. Andre, in 171 2, § 
Stall, in 1730,|| and Walldsmid, in 1692,1T 
compiled the history of tea, and compared its 



* De potu cafe. 

t II cafe descritto ed esaminato. 

t A Treatise on Tea, etc. 

§ The Tea of Europe. 

II De veris herbis theos proprietatibus. 

H De usu et abusu potus thece. 



effects with those of coffee. Dupont, Michel, 
in 1661,* Stuble, Henry, in 1662,t and 
Colmenen, in 1631, if taught the origin of cho- 
colate, its composition in India and Spain, with 
the effects of its use. To these names I might 
add those of other authors, much more recent, 
but this would be useless as their opinions are 
given in the course of this work. It is by go- 
ing to the sure fountain head, by consulting 
the writings of praiseworthy men in old and in 
modern times, that I have hoped to render my 
work useful and interesting to all. If the con- 
sumers of coffee, tea or chocolate are willing 
to profit by the precepts given in this little 
work, upon the authority of the best physi- 
cians, I shall attain the end that I have pro- 
posed to myself, that of destroying many pre- 
judices, and of reducing within just limits, the 
use, every where so common, of the three 
substances that I am about to pass in review. 



* An salubris usus chocolate. 
t The Indian's nectar, 
t Del chocolate. 



®mmm 



INTRODUCTION. 

IF it is useful to know the effects produced 
upon us by the three substances that we 
use daily, it is not less curious and even in- 
teresting to know precisely, according to the 
most authentic documents, how they have come 
down to us, by what means they have thus 
passed from remote to existing generations, 
and lastly, what are the changes that political, 
commercial, scientific and literary revolutions 
have wrought upon them. With the view of 
satisfying the demands of curiosity greedy of 
instruction, as well as the physical and moral 
wants of individuals, I should approach all the 
questions relating to the Natural, Hygienic, 
Artistic and Industrial history of coffee, 
tea and chocolate; to present all these things 
compactly, clearly and precisely, I have divi- 
ded this work into two parts. The first is 
devoted to historical documents. The second 
to the precepts of health and hygiene. 







PART FIRST. 



GENERAL HISTORY 

OF 

COFFEE, TEA AND CHOCOLATE. 



CHAPTER I. 



OF THE COFFEE TREE. 



IT is generally believed that the Coffee tree 
comes originally from Arabia Felix. 
This shrub, which is an evergreen, grows very 
quickly, and its wood is tough. Its flowers, 
which diffuse a sweet odour like that of the 
jessamine, pass away in a few days, and are 
succeeded by a berry, sometimes round and 
sometimes oval, composed of a yellowish col- 
oured pulp, which serves to envelope two little 
beans joined together on the flat side, and 
each surrounded by a leather-like pulp. These 
two beans constitute the Coffee. 



8 HISTORY OF COFFEE. 

The cultivation of the Coffee tree requires 
the greatest care, and this shrub thrives es- 
pecially in Arabia, the Isle of France, Bour- 
bon, all the Antilles, and in the countries lying 
between the tropics. In the kingdom of Ye- 
men the largest plantations of Coffee trees 
are usually half way up the mountains, be- 
tween the excessive heat of the low ground 
and the cold of the summit. The roots of the 
Coffee tree require water, and in the plains 
they take care to plant them near some trees 
that may protect their leaves from the burning 
heat of the sun. In the plantations of Africa, 
Asia and America, they sow the beans in 
nurseries unless the quarter should be rainy; 
in that case they plant them at regular intervals, 
and the shrub is not transplanted. In St. Do- 
mingo, Martinico, and the islands situated above 
the equator they sow Coffee towards the au- 
tumnal equinox; in the Isle of France and 
Bourbon towards the vernal equinox. They 
take care to throw into the same field some 
grains of Indian corn or small peas, which 
preserve the little Coffee trees from the exces- 
sive heat, the hurricanes and the gales which 
blow violently in these latitudes. The Coffee 
tree is not in full bearing until its fifth year. 



HISTORY OF COFFEE. 9 

It produces beans in abundance for thirty-five 
years and in some plantations they have found 
means of prolonging the existence of the shrubs 
by lopping them. 

The principal Coffee harvest takes place in 
the beginning of spring in our colonies, and in 
Arabia Felix, about the districts of Aden and 
Mocha. The berries are then of a deep red. 
The Arabs spread pieces of linen under the 
Coffee trees and then shake the shrubs; all 
the ripe berries fall, they expose them to the 
rays of the sun to dry them thoroughly and 
then remove their envelopes by making them 
pass through a stone or wooden cylinder. 
The beans then separate, and they place them 
again in the sun to secure a complete drying, 
after which they put them into bags made of 
rushes, for exportation. In the European colo- 
nies the gathering of the Coffee is done by 
hand. In Martinico, the Isle of France, Bour- 
bon and Guiana, the blacks pick the berries 
of the Coffee tree one by one: they expose 
them to the air and the sun to extract their 
pulp. In countries where it rains much they 
effect the drying in a stove; this process is the 
quickest and least expensive. When they have 
taken off the pulp with a mill they dry the 



10 HISTORY OF COFFEE. 

beans a second time, winnow them, expose them 
again to the sun and the beans finally lose 
all their greenness. They pile the bags one 
upon another, and take care to remove from 
them all kinds of aromatic plants, whose ema- 
nations might change the perfume of the Coffee. 

VARIETIES OF COFFEE. 

Way to recognise them. 

The beans of the Coffee tree are very near- 
ly homogeneous; yet they differ in shape and 
colour. They are yellowish, oval, convex on 
one side and flat on the other with a furrow all 
along them; their taste is mucilaginous and 
their smell has some resemblance to that of 
wheat. Their consistence is cartilaginous, 
elastic and very hard, so that it is almost im- 
possible to pulverize them before they are roast- 
ed. In commerce many varieties of Coffee 
are distinguished, which are easily recognized 
by some indications that we are about to 
give. 

MOCHA COFFEE. 

The beans of Mocha are the most esteem- 
ed and the most in request. They are known 



HISTORY OF COFFEE. 11 

by their shape, usually pretty small and almost 
round ; they differ in size and their conforma- 
tion presents many varieties ; some are flattened, 
others perfectly round, others oblong. Their 
colour inclines to yellow or greenish. The 
merchants receive the Mocha in bales made 
of rushes, covered with the bark of trees, weigh- 
ing from 145 to 146 kilogrammes. The Mocha 
Coffee is never thoroughly purified ; a mixture 
of dust and little stones is found in the bales. 
Such are the apparent marks by which the 
genuine Mocha may be known. Yet the lovers 
of this delicious bean would be profoundly in 
error if they thought that the marks were suffi- 
cient to decide in an absolute and positive 
manner. The shape and colour of the beans 
often lead consumers and merchants astray. 
It is in fact proved that the old Coffee trees, 
whose vegetable strength is exhausted, pro- 
duce only a bean, that being single in the 
envelope, assumes a round form, in the plan- 
tations of America as in those of Arabia Felix. 
These round beans, which often reach us from 
the Antilles, are sold in France for the genu- 
ine Mocha, and the greater number of consu- 
mers permit themselves to be taken in by these 
deceptive appearances. 



12 HISTORY OF COFFEE. 

What is the true means, the sure and in- 
fallible means of recognising beyond a doubt, 
the berries of the kingdom of Yemen? The 
shape, colour and size are so many proofs that 
may be generally admitted; but the true con- 
noisseur does not confine himself to these phy- 
sical traits ; it is especially by the smell and 
by the taste of the infusion that he recognises 
the real Mocha, the pure Mocha; its aroma 
is sweeter and more intense. - The talent of 
tasting is very rare, and before acquiring it 
in a high degree numerous trials must be made. 
Brillat Savarin, begins his Physiology of Taste 
with these three gastronomic axioms: 

"The beast feeds; 

"Man eats; 

" The man of sense alone knows how to eat." 

We may say in speaking of the tasting of 
Coffee: 

The common run of men take half cups ; 

Some amateurs know how to take Coffee; 

The man of sense alone knows how to take 
Coffee, and appreciate its poetical aroma. 

MARTINICO COFFEE. 

The magistrates of Amsterdam sent as a 
present to Louis XIV a root of Coffee that was 



HISTORY OF COFFEE. 13 

planted with the greatest care in the Garden 
of Plants. The root was carried by De Clieux 
to Martinico: this second transplanting suc- 
ceeded perfectly, and some years afterwards 
the queen of the Antilles possessed a very great 
number of Coffee trees : they had even enough 
to take some of the plants to Guadaloupe, Saint 
Domingo, and other French colonies. 

The Martinico Coffee occupies the first rank 
after the Mocha berry; all consumers are 
unanimous upon this point. The grains are 
larger than those of Yemen, longer and round- 
ed at the two ends; their colour is light green, 
the shades of which exhibit little difference. 
They are enveloped in a pellicle of a silvery 
hue,. which is not separated until they have 
been exposed to the action of fire. Com- 
merce recognises three varieties of Martinico 
Coffee: 

The fine green Martinico, 
The fine yellow Martinico, 
The ordinary Martinico. 

The smell of the Coffee of the Antilles is 
fresh, and its aroma knows no rival but the 
Mocha. The taste of the two beans is almost 



14 HISTORY OF COFFEE. 






identical and has much resemblance to that 
of unground wheat. The Martinico Coffee is 
exported in coarse linen sacks or in casks. 

BOURBON COFFEE. 

In 1718, says Raynal in his Philosophical 
and Political History of the New World, the 
Company of the French Indies established at 
Paris, sent some plants of Mocha to Bourbon. 
All the Coffee trees now cultivated in this island 
are descended from these plants. However, 
there exists a species or variety which is indi- 
genous to this country; at least the following 
fact noted in the Memoirs of the Academy of 
Sciences of Paris seems to prove it. The in- 
habitants of the Isle of Bourbon, it is there 
mentioned, having seen On board of a French 
ship returning from Mocha some branches of 
the common Coffee tree laden with leaves and 
fruit, immediately remarked that there were 
trees perfectly similar in their mountains. 
They went to find some branches of them, the 
resemblance of which to those that had been 
brought was found to be exact. Only the Cof- 
fee of the island was found to be longer, thin- 
ner and greener than that of Arabia. 



HISTORY OF COFFEE. 15 

The beans of Bourbon are of a yellowish 
colour inclining to green, small, of different 
shapes, mostly round: they greatly resemble 
the Mocha. Commerce receives three varie- 
ties of Bourbon Coffee, the fine green Bourbon, 
the perfume of which is very agreeable, the ber- 
ries small and round and their colour almost 
green; the fine yelloiv Bourbon, which differs 
from the first only in its yellowish colour ; and 
the ordinary Bourbon (inferior quality) of 
which the perfume is less decided and less 
agreeable and the berries are larger, irregular, 
sometimes yellow and sometimes green. For 
about the last fifteen years, commerce has re- 
ceived from Bourbon some Coffee that has the 
smell of tea: botanists attribute this peculiari- 
ty to the vicinity of the country where tea 
grows in abundance. Consumers should re- 
ject another variety of the Bourbon Coffee 
known by the name of Marron Coffee: its 
quality is very inferior: it is principally known 
by its shape, rounded at one end and drawn 
out at the other and. by the pellicles inherent 
to the berry. The Bourbon Coffee arrives 
in France in double bags of rushes, whose 
weight varies from twenty -five to fifty kilo- 
grammes. 




16 HISTORY OP COFFEE. 

COFFEE OF GUADALOUPE AND CAYENNE. 

The beans of Guadaloupe differ little in 
shape from those of Martinico: they are ob- 
long, shining, entirely stripped of their pellicles, 
and of a leaden green. 

It is easy to recognise the Coffee of Cayenne 
by its large flattened beans, almost entirely 
covered by their pellicles, which give them a 
silvery colour. Their characteristic mark is 
a dull blackish green ; this quality is inferior 
to the Coffee of Martinico. The exports of 
Guadaloupe and Cayenne are made in casks 
or in bags. 

HAITI (SAINT DOMINGO) COFFEE. 

The first plants of Coffee were taken from 
Martinico to Saint Domingo (now the Repub- 
lic of Haiti.) This variety is in little request 
in commerce, its taste is slightly acid: the 
beans terminate in a point, are larger and 
longer than those of Martinico, of very irre- 
gular shapes, and they are sometimes almost 
entirely covered with pellicles of a reddish 
colour. The Haitians do not take pains to 
purify their Coffee thoroughly: black beans 
or little stones are always found in the bales. 



HISTORY OF COFFEE. 17 

COFFEE OF BRAZIL. 

The Coffee of Brazil greatly resembles the 
Mocha and the ordinary Bourbon ; one might 
say that the small beans came from Arabia 
and the large from the French colony ; they 
are of a dark yellow ; the yellow pellicle is 
shining and very light. Rio Janiero produces 
a variety of Coffee whose beans, larger and 
not very long, are yellowish green ; their aro- 
ma is very striking. 

COFFEE OF MANILLA AND JAMAICA. 

The Coffee of Manilla is little known in com- 
merce; its beans are covered with pellicles, 
gray inclining to greenish. The Manilla has 
little aroma ; it is exported in double mats of 
rushes. 

The Coffee of Jamaica has a pretty agree- 
able smell, it does not want aroma. The 
beans of a bright green are odd-shaped and 
but rarely covered with pellicles. They are 
brought in hempen bags. 

COFFEE OF CUBA AND PORTO-RICO. 

The colour of Cuba varies from pale green 
to yellowish green. Its beans are small, 
covered with a reddish pellicle and very clean; 
c 



18 HISTORY OF COFFEE. 

some beans are round like those of Mocha, 
because they come from old Coffee trees. 
The Cuba is brought in casks or bags made 
of the bark of trees. 

The Coffee of the Island of Ceylon is of 
middling quality ; its beans have shapes in- 
finitely varied, of a deep greenish or pale yel- 
low colour. 

The Coffee of Porto-Rico has much resem- 
blance to that of Martinico, although of in- 
ferior quality ; its beans are shorter, less co- 
vered with pellicle and slightly curved. 



COFFEE OF JAVA AND SUMATRA. 

The Coffee of Java has a strong perfume ; 
its beans of a yellow brown, sometimes pale 
yellow or greenish, are long and hard ; they 
all have their pellicles on. The Coffee of Java 
is usually badly purified; black grains, little 
stones and bits of wood are found in the bags 
made of double Grenny linen. 

The taste of the Coffee of Sumatra is very 
strikingly bitter. The beans, oblong shaped, 
a little flattened, covered with the pellicles, are 
of yellow, reddish, brown and black colours. 
The Sumatra is exported in plain rush mats. 



HISTORY OF COFFEE. 19 

Such are the principal varieties of coffee 
recognised by naturalists, consumers and mer- 
chants ; they all have a common mother, the 
berry of Mocha; but they have entirely de- 
generated, and if they preserve a portion of the 
maternal aroma, it cannot be denied that the 
different processes of cultivation tend every 
year to modify the primitive character. The 
coffee of the districts of Aden and Mocha has 
lost none of its superiority : in our days, as in 
the sixteenth century, it holds the first rank 
in the esteem of connoisseurs. Some natural- 
ists have tried to discover if this result ought 
to be exclusively ascribed to the soil of Arabia 
or the climate ; their observations have result- 
ed only in some hypotheses more or less prob- 
able ; but it is certain that the cupidity of the 
European planters has given the severest 
blow to the coffee transplanted to the Antilles, 
Java, Sumatra, Manilla, Guyana, Bourbon, 
Porto-Rico and Rio Janiero. In fact what is 
the sole and constant aim of every planter ? 
To increase the size and the weight of the 
bean, which can only be obtained at the ex- 
pense of the quality. The Arabs wait, to 
gather the harvest, until the beans of the 
coffee tree have reached the highest degree 



20 HISTORY OF COFFEE. 

of maturity. The planters of America, on the 
contrary, gather them too soon, so that the 
beans are badly dried, and the aroma cannot 
attain the degree of development that consti- 
tutes the superior qualities ; thus it is that the 
coffee of our colonies is softer, more spongy 
and less dry than the Mocha; it easily be- 
comes impregnated with the emanations of 
substances that are near it, and it often hap- 
pens that the bags of Martinico, Bourbon and 
Guyana exhale a strong smell of cinnamon, 
pepper, cloves and other aromatics. 

By what signs can the consumer recognise 
good Coffee ? 

We have analyzed in the preceding para- 
graphs the distinctive and physical character- 
istics of the different varieties of Coffee ; we 
have gone to the best sources of information, 
and we believe that we have omitted nothing 
Of importance. But besides the physical char- 
acteristics peculiar to each variety of the spe- 
cies, there are some general ones that are sub- 
ject to a i"ew modifications. To sum up all 
that we have said concerning the Mocha and 
the colonial beans, we will confine ourselves 
to giving some advice to consumers; we do 



HISTORY OF COFFEE. 21 

not speak of the connoisseurs, these perhaps 
know more about it than we do ; they have 
for themselves a long experience, the surest 
of all guides; their palate has long since be- 
come acquainted with the aroma of Arabia 
Felix, and they have no need of a particular 
description to recognise their well beloved 
liquor. We write these lines for the great 
bulk of consumers, and we hope that every 
one will therein find profit and instruction. 

As a general rule, the consumer or the mer- 
chant who buys coffee should ascertain that 
it is of the year's crop, hard, dry and yielding 
with difficulty to the pressure of the teeth. If 
it is sonorous, whole, clean, of middling size, 
scented, in smooth grains and free from all 
extraneous smell, we should no longer doubt 
its good quality, and the most exacting con- 
noisseur may lay in an ample supply of it. 

INTRODUCTION OF COFFEE INTO EUROPE. 

The coffee tree* comes originally from Up- 
per Ethiopia, where it has been known from 



* Raynal, Philosophical and Political History of the 
New World. 



22 HISTORY OF COFFEE. 

time immemorial, and where it is still cultiva- 
ted with success. Some authors pretend that 
the fruit of this shrub was appreciated by the 
people of antiquity, and that the Nepenthes 
served by Helen to Telemachus was nothing 
else than Coffee.* 

It is the Orientals that have transmitted the 
use of it to us. Some say that we owe the 
first trial of it to the vigilance of the Superior 
of a monastery, who wishing to draw his monks 
from the sleep that kept them drowsy at night 
to the offices of the choir, made them drink 
the infusion of it upon the relation of the effects 
that this fruit produced in the goats that had 
eaten it : others pretend that a Moll ah, named 
Chadely, was the first Arab that took coffee, 
with a view to preserve himself from a con- 
tinual drowsiness that prevented his attending 
properly to his nocturnal prayers. The der- 
vishes imitated him. Their example led away 
the men of the law. It was soon perceived 
that this beverage enlivened the mind and dis- 
sipated the oppressions of the stomach. Those 
even who had no necessity to keep themselves 



Homer, Odyssey. 



HISTORY OF COFFEE. 23 

awake adopted it. From the borders of the 
Red Sea, the use of it passed to Medina, to 
Mecca, and through the pilgrims into all the 
Mahometan countries. Lastly, we read in a 
manuscript which is in the Royal Library,* 
that coffee, although originally from Arabia 
Felix was in use in Africa and Persia quite a 
long time before the Arabs had made a drink 
of it. Towards the middle of the fifteenth 
century, the Mufti of Aden, a city of Arabia, 
traveling in Persia, saw this liquor used there, 
and on his return, he made it known in his 
own country. From Aden its use spread into 
all the place subject to the law of Mahomet. 

In many cities of these countries they 
thought of establishing public houses wherein 
coffee was distributed. In Persia, these houses 
became, as with us, a respectable retreat for 
idle persons, and a place of relaxation for per- 
sons engaged in business. The politicians talk- 
ed of the news there, the poets there recited 
their verses and the mollahs their sermons. 
At Constantinople things did not go on so 



* There is in the Royal Library a manuscript upon 
Coffee that is ascribed to one of the ancestors of Abd-el- 
kader. 



24 HISTORY OF COFFEE. 

quietly : they had no sooner opened the coffee- 
houses than they were eagerly frequented. 
Owing to the representations of the Mufti, 
under Amurat III, the government had these 
public places closed, and tolerated the use of 
this liquor only in the interior of families. A 
decided inclination triumphed over this severi- 
ty; they contrived to drink coffee publicly, 
and the places where it was served out were 
multiplied. 

During the war of Candia and under the 
minority of Mahomet IV, the Grand Vizier 
Koproli suppressed them again : but this pre- 
caution was as useless as the preceding. 

In the beginning of the sixteenth century 
coffee in like manner occasiond troubles at 
Cairo. In the year 1523 or 930 of the hegira 
Abdalla-Ibrahim, the head of the law, preached 
loudly against this beverage from his mosque 
of Hassassamie ; but the Sheik-el-Belek (the 
commander of the place) assembled all his 
doctors, and having patiently listened to a long 
discussion, he had coffee served to every body, 
and broke up the sitting without saying a sin- 
gle word. This measure restored tranquillity. 
Thus it is that the use of coffee universally 
adopted in the east has perpetuated itself there 



HISTORY OF COFFEE. 25 

in spite of the violence of the laws and the 
authority of religion that combined together to 
proscribe it. The Turks have a particular 
steward whom they call cavaghi, that is to 
say, Coffee-officer, and in the seraglio there 
are many cavaghis ; each of them presides 
over twenty or thirty battaghis, entrusted with 
preparing this agreeable liquor. 

Coffee had begun to be held in esteem at 
Constantinople during the reign of Soliman 
the Great, in 1551. It was about a century 
afterwards that it was adopted at London and 
Paris; but its introduction into England met 
with, under Charles II, the same difficulties 
that it had encountered in Turkey, under Amu- 
rat and Mahomet. They found that the cof- 
fee-houses became places of meeting for too 
great numbers, and they suppressed them in 
1675, as seminaries of sedition. In France 
they were more moderate ; these public places 
were peaceably established and kept up. In 
1669, Soliman-Aga, the Embassador from the 
Sublime Porte, made a great number of per- 
sons taste coffee, who after his departure con- 
tinued to make use of it. The first public 
coffee-saloon was constructed at the Saint 
Germain market by an Armenian, in 1672. 



26 HISTORY OF COFFEE. 

Afterwards he established himself upon the 
Qiiai de PJEcole, where a shop is still to be 
seen at the corner of the Rue de la Monnai. 
The saloon was frequented only by the knights 
of Malta and strangers. Having left Paris to 
go to London he had many successors. A 
cup of coffee was sold at this period for two 
sous and five deniers. Lastly, a certain Ste- 
phen of Aleppo was the first who constructed 
at Paris a saloon adorned with glasses and 
marble tables ; it was in the Rue- Saint- An- 
dree-des-Arcs, opposite the St. Michael bridge. 

McCul lough thus describes the introduction 
of Coffee in London, and the difficulties that 
the Dutch experienced in procuring the first 
plants of the coffee tree. 

" The first of the establishments to which 
the name of Coffee-houses was given, was 
opened in London in 1652. A merchant, 
named Edwards, who traded with Turkey, 
having brought some bags of Coffee from the 
Levant and brought with him a Greek servant 
accustomed to make it, soon saw his house be- 
seiged by a crowd of people, who, under the 
pretence of visiting him came to taste this new 
liquor. To satisfy his friends, who daily be- 
came more numerous, and at the same time 



HISTORY OF COFFEE. 27 

to free himself from the embarrassment that 
they caused him, he allowed his servant to 
establish himself where he pleased, to make 
coffee and sell it to the public. In conse- 
quence of this permission, the Greek opened 
a coffee-house at the very spot where the Vir- 
ginia Coffee-house now is. The celebrated 
coffee-house of Garraway, where so many 
sales by auction are held, was the first that 
was opened after the great fire of 1666. By 
a proclamation, published in 1675, Charles II 
attempted to suppress the coffee-houses, under 
pretence that they served as places of meeting 
for the disaffected, who invented and circulat- 
ed false and calumnious reports to defame the 
government of the king and disturb the repose 
of the nation. The twelve Judges having been 
consulted respecting the legality of this mea- 
sure, declared that the retailing of the decoc- 
tion of coffee might be an innocent trade ; but 
as it was made use of to nourish sedition, to 
propagate lies and calumniate great person- 
ages, this might be also an injurious thing, and 
that it was proper to prohibit it. 

" The Arab princes, to secure to themselves 
the monopoly of coffee, had prohibited under 
pain of death the exportation of a single coffee 



28 HISTORY OF COFFEE. 

plant from the country ; a prohibition, more- 
over, difficult enough to violate, seeing that 
this plant is only found within twenty-five 
leagues of Mocha, the only port where Euro- 
pean vessels were allowed to touch. It is even 
said that the Arabs pushed their precaution so 
far as to render the seeds of the coffee tree 
barren by means of a certain degree of roast- 
ing that they made them undergo before hand- 
ing them over to commerce. In spite of all 
their efforts the Dutch succeeded either in pro- 
curing some plants or some grains that had 
preserved their fertility, and naturalized the 
coffee tree in the environs of Sumatra." 

A people naturally lively and trifling, says 
Mons. Garnier, # must have quickly adopted 
the use of a drink so fit to keep up their natu- 
ral gaiety. It was at first an object of fancy 
or luxury, and was not long in becoming a ne- 
cessary, particularly for the rich. The taste 
for it spread from one to another throughout 
all ranks and all countries ; the inhabitants of 
the North became used to it ; they preferred 
this drink to their liquors. Finally all Europe 



* Dictionary of Commerce and Merchandise. 



HISTORY OF COFFEE. 29 

took coffee. It was impossible that a taste, 
become so general, should not excite a desire 
among Europeans to possess the tree that pro- 
duced this precious grain. The maritime 
powers of this part of the world had colonies 
situated between the tropics ; they thought of 
transplanting the coffee tree to them. It was 
to be sought for in its native country, that is 
to say, Arabia, for it was from this country 
that all the coffee came that was then con- 
sumed in Europe. The Dutch succeeded in 
it, and were the first to raise coffee in their 
great colony of Batavia. 

We have elsewhere related how the coffee 
tree was transplanted to Martinico, and the 
other islands belonging to France. 

We have now to speak of the manner of 
preparing coffee. We cannot do better than 
to quote the judicious observations of Mons. 
Gamier, since they seem to us based upon a 
long experience and profound studies. 

COFFEE A LA SULTANA. 

The Arabs dry up the pulp to make use of 
it in a tea-like drink ; it is said that this is an 
article of commerce. This drink is agreeable 
and refreshing enough ; it is what they call 



30 HISTORY OF COFFEE. 

Coffee a la Sultana. This name also serves 
to denote, in Europe, the slight decoction of 
unroasted grains, which, taken with a little 
sugar, strengthens the stomach and restores 
the appetite. In some parts of Southern Asia 
they soak the pulp in casks full of water, and 
obtain from it a kind of wine, which furnishes, 
by distillation, a very agreeable spirituous 
liquor. In the Antilles they make no use of it. 

THE ROASTING OF COFFEE. 

As to the bean, every one knows that it 
undergoes roasting, that it is ground to con- 
vert it into powder, and that warm water is 
poured upon this powder to obtain from it an 
infusion that serves as an intellectual drink; 
an expression that is now consecrated. 

THE PREPARATION OF COFFEE. 

The roasting destroys the crudity of the 
bean and drives off the watery part of its mu- 
cilage, it facilitates the action of the mill and 
developes that combination of essences whose 
union constitutes what is called the flavour ; 
but too much heat destroys the principles that 
ought to be preserved, and substitutes others 
for them, bitter and astringent, that have no- 



HISTORY OF COFFEE. 31 

thing in common with the ambrosia that the 
connoisseur tastes with such delight. On the 
other hand, too little heat conceals the flavour, 
and preserves a little of the greenness ; coffee 
prepared with this powder would oppress the 
stomach. There is then a point that cannot 
be pointed out, but which experience teaches 
us to seize. It is usually by the smell which 
embalms the surrounding atmosphere, that one 
is apprized that the action of caloric should be 
checked. It is estimated that a good roasting 
ought to carry off only from sixteen to twenty 
per cent. The roasting is usually done in an 
iron cylinder. Glazed earthenware vessels 
may become injurious on account of the en- 
amel which scales off and mixes with the 
coffee. When the roasting is done, some 
persons are in the habit of smothering the 
coffee with a napkin or paper. It is a wrong 
way ; the heat is kept up and all the oils dis- 
appear. A better way is to pour the coffee 
upon a stone, or into a perfectly cold vessel, 
that the escape of the aroma may be checked 
as soon as possible. Coffee should not be 
ground before it is perfectly cold, for it would 
glue up the nut of the mill. When an infu- 
sion is prepared a too great heat should also be 



32 HISTORY OF COFFEE. 

avoided, for then it dissolves the resinous, sour 
and bitter principle ; besides, the great quanti- 
ty of vapour that is formed draws off all the 
volatile parts, and dissipates the perfume in 
such request with amateurs. Persons are, 
however, in the habit of pouring the water 
quite boiling into their coffee-pot ; but the 
coats of the vessel soon absorb the excess of 
caloric. When there is time it is sufficient 
to perform only the straining with cold water, 
and to warm the solution before drinking it; 
it even seems that this kind of simmering, as 
they say, unites the savoury principles ; so it 
is quite improper to pour warm water upon the 
substance remaining after straining when it is 
desired to deprive it of all that it has been able 
to retain. The solution that is obtained is deep 
colored, but it has a detestable taste. 

MANNER OF PRESERVING THE FLAVOUR 
OF COFFEE. 

That ike flavour may not be lost, care should 
be taken not to roast and grind the coffee 
until a few hours before preparing the in- 
fusion. However, they have of late tried to 
envelope the roasted berries in a little layer 
of sugar to prevent the evaporation of the per- 



HISTORY OF COFFEE. 33 

fume : this process seems to have good results, 
but it is not yet generally in use. 

ESSENCE OF MOCHA. 

Some distillers prepare a concentrated in- 
fusion, and sell it under the genuine name of 
Essence of Mocha : this preparation has its 
use in traveling, and in the country ; but it 
has not yet attained the approbation of the real 
connoisseur. 

OF COFFEE POTS. 

Coffee pots of silver, tin or earthenware, are 
generally used for making the infusion of cof- 
fee. Rich persons drink it in silver : to others 
we recommend earthenware Coffee-pots. The 
tin generally communicates a taste of ink, ow- 
ing to a small quantity of iron that the tannin 
of the coffee dissolves. For some years past 
the Coffee-pots a la Dubelloy have been gene- 
rally adopted. 

COFFEE TRADE, EXPORTATION. 

Here are very nearly the quantities of Coffee 
exported annually from the countries that pro- j 
duce it. 

D 



34 HISTORY OF COFFEE. 

From Mocha, Hodeida, and other parts of 
Arabia, 10,000 tons. 

From Java, 18,000 tons. 

From Sumatra, and other parts of the Indian 
Archipelago, 8,000. 

From Brazil, and the former Spanish posses- 
sion of South America, 42,000. 

From St. Domingo, 20,000. 

From Cuba and Porto-Rico, 25,000. 

From the English colonies in the West Indies, 
11,000. 

From the former Dutch colonies, 5,000. 

From the Island of Bourbon, and the other 
French colonies, 8,000. 



CONSUMPTION OF COFFEE IN THE DIFFERENT 
COUNTRIES OF THE KNOWN WORLD. 

This consumption is thus estimated : 
Great Britain, 11,500 tons. 
Holland and Belgium, 40,500. 
Germany, and the countries bordering on the 

Baltic, 152,000. 
France, Spain, Italy, Turkey in Europe, the 

Levant, etc., 35,000. 
Austria, 20,000. 



HISTORY OF COFFEE. 35 

DUTIES LAID UPON COFFEE. 

The duties upon coffee in France are 50 
francs per hundred kilogrammes upon that of 
Bourbon, 60 francs upon that of French Gui- 
ana, Martinico and Guadaloupe, 78 francs 
upon the coffees of India, and those- coming 
from all the countries lying to the west of Cape 
Horn, and elsewhere out of Europe, 100 francs 
upon the coffees of the emporiums, and 105 
francs upon those that arrive in foreign vessels, 
or by land. The export duties are 25 cen- 
times. 

PRICE OF COFFEE. 

Mocha, Martinico, and fine green Guada- 
loupe, are sold at Havre from 1 franc 50 cen- 
times to 1 franc 55 centimes the half kilogram- 
me. Bourbon, 1 franc 40 centimes ; Hayti 1 
franc 30 centimes, and the others in proportion. 

THE CONSUMPTION IN FRANCE. 

The consumption in France, of late years, 
has been estimated at 10,893,721 kilogrammes, 
which have been sold for 10,821,360 francs, 
official price. 

Duties laid, 10,224,581 francs. 



36 HISTORY OF COFFEE. 

THE COFFEE-HOUSES OF PARIS. 

The history of the Coffee-houses of Paris 
goes no further back than the year 1669. We 
have already said that Soliman Aga, Embas- 
sador from the Emperor of Turkey, made the 
lords and ladies taste coffee, who went to see 
him at his hotel. The taste for this drink 
spread rapidly. Towards the close of the 
year 1669, an Armenian, named Pascal, set 
up a shop in the market of St. Germain, 
where he publicly sold coffee. After the mar- 
ket, he established himself in a little room on 
the Quai de VEcole, at the corner of the Rue 
de la Monnaie. He had a repute that it took 
his successors a long time to obtain ; the 
knights of Malta, who had dwelt in the East, 
travelers and officers gave so great a reputa- 
tion to his establishment that it was sold very 
dear, when he left Paris to go open another 
Coffee-house in London ; he had numerous 
successors, who all did an excellent business. 
One named Stephen of Aleppo finally built 
in the Rue St. Andre des Arcs, a room mag- 
nificent for the time, which he decorated with 
glasses and marble tables. 

The advantages that France presented in 
the Coffee trade attracted many strangers, who 



HISTORY OF COFFEE. 37 

founded numerous establishments. The cele- 
brated Procope, a Sicilian by birth, after hav- 
ing sold Coffee for a long time at the St. Ger- 
main market, established himself in the year 
1689, in the Rue des Fosse's- St.- Germain. 
The French theatre had just been removed 
thither, which was previously in the Rue 
Gu&n&gaud. The vicinity of the theatre 
made Procope's fortune : the dramatic authors, 
the actors and actresses frequented his Coffee- 
house, which became, and for a long time con- 
tinued, the rendezvous of men of letters. They 
discussed questions of literature, and read new 
pieces there. Boileau, Lafontaine, Moliere, and 
subsequently Voltaire, immortalized the Procope 
Coffee-house, where a table of J. J. Rousseau 
and the encyclopedists is still shown. 

The Coffee-house of the Widow Laurent at 
the corner of the Rue Guenegaud rivaled 
that of the Sicilian Procope : it was frequented 
by second and third rate poets and literati. 
J. B. Rousseau, Montmaur, Sauchette, and 
Lamothe were in the habit of going there dai- 
ly. J. B. Rousseau, who, as he says in his 
memoires, had besotted himself in the society 
of the Widow Laurenfs Coffee-house, there 
composed, it is said, the celebrated couplets 



38 HISTORY OF COFFEE. 

against the usual visiters, Lamothe, Crebillon 
and Saurin, that occasioned his banishment by 
the Parliament of Paris in 1712. In the reign 
of Louis XV, the Coffee-house of the Regency 
was established near the Palais Royal, which 
was for a long time frequented by the chess- 
players. The annals of this Coffee-house 
would be most curious if any one had taken 
the pains to note the disasters that befel the 
players. What dramatic turns of fortune ! 
But the chronicles of these establishments rarely 
survive the generation that frequents them, and 
to find some isolated facts, we must search for 
them laboriously in contemporary memoirs, or 
inquire for them of the traditions of the old ac- 
customed visiters. 

WHEN DID COFFEE-HOUSES SPREAD GREATLY 
IN FRANCE 1 

We have already related the persecutions 
that the first persons who established Coffee- 
houses in England had to undergo. In France 
the authorities conducted themselves with more 
wisdom and moderation. The lemonade ven- 
ders enjoyed ample liberty ; the persons who 
frequented their establishments were not in the 
least disturbed. 



HISTORY OF COFFEE. 39 

Some writers of memoirs attribute this tole- 
ration to the dislike with which coffee was at 
first received. Every one knows that Louis 
XV did not like coffee ; that the fashionable 
ladies, and at their head the witty Sevigne de- 
clared themselves the bitter enemies of coffee. 

" Racine and coffee will pass away," wrote 
this lady in a confidential letter. 

The prediction is not on the brink of fulfil- 
ment : our great poet Racine 

Is still young in glory and immortality. 

Coffee invaded all classes of society; rich 
and poor took coffee. It is at first surprising 
that coffee, which so readily obtained the 
honours of repute at London, should have 
found opponents in France. The astonish- 
ment will gradually diminish if one casts a 
retrospective glance upon French society to- 
wards the close of the seventeenth and begin- 
ning of the eighteenth century. Our worthy 
grandfathers went to the tavern : young lords, 
poets and men of learning did not blush to 
enter a tavern. The young gentlemen very 
often found themselves overcome with wine. 
Boileau sometimes passed a whole day at a 



40 HISTORY OF COFFEE. 

tavern, Chapelle sacrificed immoderately to 
Bacchus, and we read in Moliere\s Memoirs 
that a great number of his friends made him 
so completely tipsy in his country-house at 
Auteuil that he wished to go throw himself 
into the Seine. This history is too well 
known to make it necessary to relate it here. 

It is settled that coffee was received with dis- 
favor in France under Louis XIV, and during 
the first years of the reign of Louis XV. But 
this prince, to oblige Madame Dubarry, easily 
accustomed himself to this drink, and it is said 
that he did not disdain to prepare his coffee 
secretly in his apartments in concert with his 
mistress. 

"The king smiles, the courtiers laugh out 
loud," says an old proverb. 

Louis XV professing to love coffee, 

every body was passionately fond of coffee, 
which at last triumphed over the national an- 
tipathy. We say antipathy, because the French, 
accustomed to drink excellent wine at a cheap 
rate, showed themselves for a long time hostile 
to a liquor that threatened to dethrone the old 
Bacchus of the table. Some infatuated per- 
sons persisted in haunting the taverns in pre- 
ference to the Coffee-houses, and fuddled them- 



HISTORY OF COFFEE. 41 

selves from a spirit of nationality. Perhaps 
too, the French character, strongly inclined to 
gaiety and enthusiasm, felt at first some repug- 
nance to giving the rights of citizenship to a 
drink that seemed at first inferior to Burgundy 
and Champagne. 

However that may be, coffee ended by tri- 
umphing over the national antipathy and the 
prejudices of some old gentlemen who had 
sworn to die martyrs to the worship of the 
bottle. Dating from the end of the reign of 
Louis XV, the number of Coffee-houses rapid- 
ly increased in Paris and the provinces, and 
from that time the perfume of the berry of 
Arabia embalms the table of the rich and the 
poor, and concludes our repasts poetically. 



a a a 

a a a a a 

a a a a a a a 

a a a a a 

a a a 

a 



^MMMMMMMMMM^^M 



CHAPTER II. 

OF TEA. 

WE speak in the hygienic part of our 
pamphlet of the properties of tea, 
and of its influence on the health and the moral 
nature of man. We have, then, only to make 
here some general observations foreign to medi- 
cine and hygiene. 

IMPORTATION OF TEA INTO EUROPE. 

In Chinese books, printed many centuries 
before the Christian era, we find whole poems 
consecrated to the praise of tea. The first im- 
portation of this perfumed leaf into Europe 
dates from the commencement of the seven- 
teenth century. In 1666 Lord Harrington and 
Ossory procured a considerable quantity of it. 
This drink soon became in fashion in the coun- 
tries of the North. In France tea was at first 
used only as a medicine ; however, towards 
the beginning of the last century some persons 



HISTORY OF TEA. 43 

made it fashionable. The war of the Revolu- 
tion and of the Empire having interrupted our 
commercial relations with India and China,, we 
easily forgot tea, which was not talked of until 
some years after the first restoration. Since 
that time the use of it has spread, but with us 
it will never enjoy a great reputation. 

SMALL CONSUMPTION OF TEA IN FRANCE. 

Our neighbours over the sea, and the people 
of the North in general, console themselves for 
the absence of wine with tea ; they addict them- 
selves excessively to the use of this drink, 
which has become indispensable to them, be- 
cause under their cloudy skies they need some 
stimulus. In France, on the contrary, wine 
and the alcoholic liquors will always contend 
with advantage against the infusion of the Chi- 
nese leaves. The best tea of the Celestial 
Empire cannot bear a comparison with Bor- 
deaux, Burgundy and Champagne. Let any 
one attempt to import tea for the inhabitants 
of Burgundy, Guyenne and Languedoc ; they 
will answer that nature has given them the 
first of all drinks in abundance, and that a 
glass of wine is worth more to them than a 
pot of tea, so necessary to northern people. 



44 HISTORY OF TEA. 

WHY TEA IS SO GREATLY IN VOGUE AMONG 
THE ENGLISH. 

England has no other wine than that which 
she derives from the Cape of Good Hope. The 
price of this drink becomes exorbitant when 
she buys it in France, Spain and Portugal. 
The British government having it always in 
view never to be tributary to neighboring na- 
tions, has given great importance to the trade 
in tea. The great and the common people 
have unanimously adopted the infusion of the 
Chinese leaves, which with them fills the place 
of wine, brandy, and other spirits. 

TEA USEFUL TO THE ENGLISH, INJURIOUS 
TO THE FRENCH. 

In analysing the chemical properties of tea, 
we have said that we should judge of its effect 
by the impression that it produces on the or- 
gans. This impression is always in propor- 
tion to the sensibility of the person that feels 
it : it is for this reason that in certain persons 
tea occasions violent movements, and excites 
disturbance in the functions of the organism, 
whilst in others it does not make a sensible 
impression. 



HISTORY OF TEA. 45 

Starting from this principle, it will not be 
difficult for us to demonstrate that the frequent 
use of tea, beneficial to the English, is most 
commonly injurious to the French. This is 
owing to the temperaments of the individuals 
of the two nations. 

The Englishman, living in a foggy and 
moist atmosphere, and in a cold climate, is 
naturally a glutton, and devours at each of his 
meals an enormous quantity of meat. He 
needs then a strong stimulus to come to the 
assistance of his stomach during the work of 
digestion. 

The Frenchman lives in a temperate cli- 
mate, rather hot than cold; he is naturally 
sober, and vegetables form the principal basis 
of his nourishment; digestion is performed 
without difficulty, especially being hastened 
by the use of wine. 

The Englishman is naturally lymphatic; 
stuffed with beefsteaks and plum-pudding, he 
remains for two hours almost annihilated by 
the painful elaboration of the stomach; one 
might call him a boa quasi-asphyxied by a 
gazelle that he has just swallowed. Tea alone 
can draw him from this lethargic sleep; it 



46 HISTORY OF TEA. 

gives him gaiety, energy, warmth and lo- 
quacity. 

The Frenchman, of a nervous constitution, 
most usually experiences only fatal consequen- 
ces from the use of tea, which is almost always 
injurious to him. The French ladies, especi- 
ally, should avoid this drink, which occasions 
them painful spasms, whilst it merely shakes 
off moderately the indolence of the London 
ladies. 

To sum up, we think that tea will never ob- 
tain, among us, regular letters of naturaliza- 
tion. The climate and the productions of Na- 
ture will never cease to contend against it. 

Let us bless heaven for the part allotted to 
us! To us, wine, to the English, tea. 

To us, the sun, fine weather and the most 
precious gifts of nature. 

To the English, fogs, coal, plumb-pudding, 
the spleen and consumptive diseases. 

Tea then is injurious to the French ; it ought 
to be proscribed as an anti-national drink, ex- 
cept in cases of indigestion, which are more 
and more rare in France; we eat to live, the 
English live to eat; let us then leave them 
their tea, their favorite drink. 






CHAPTER III. 

OF CHOCOLATE. 

IN giving only the history of chocolate un- 
der the three phases above announced, 
we should run the risk of seeming incomplete if 
we did not make haste to say, that according 
to the historical documents of a Spanish work, 
published in 1743, this paste has played a 
great part in the celebration of divine service 
by the Spanish clergy. Thus, according to 
the account of Rene Moreau, towards the com- 
mencement of the seventeenth century, a Span- 
ish priest, saying mass on board a vessel to 
thank God for the prosperous voyage that the 
crew had had, thought he might allow him- 
self to swallow a cup of clwcolate ivithout any 
irreverence to the Deity, at tlie moment of con- 
secration, because he felt a weakness at his 
stomach. According to the same author, the 
canons of the chapter had in his time the same 
comfortable habit in chaunting the service in 



48 HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE. 

the morning. We have reason to believe that 
the members of the present clergy have not in- 
herited this irreligious practice in Spain any 
more than elsewhere. 

In the third chapter of the second part of 
our work we have carefully given the compo- 
sition of the different chocolates as we have 
them from the Italian, Spanish and French 
factories. Our readers will there read with 
interest the composition of chocolate among 
the Indians, and the effects upon the body of 
the different ingredients of which they make 
this paste, which was held in so great venera- 
tion among this people for want of something 
better. Marchina informs us that the choco- 
late of the Indies is composed of 

Cacao, 

White Sugar, 

Cinnamon, - 

Mexican Pepper, 

Cloves, 

Anniseed, - 
Some add to this almonds, hazle-nuts and 
orange flower water. The cloves were not 
used by those who were considered good manu- 
facturers, understanding perfectly the way to 
make this drink, owing, perhaps, to this cir- 



- 10 pounds. 


- 2 » 


2 ounces. 


- 14 grains. 


5 ounce. 


2 reals. 






HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE. 49 

cumsta?ice, that cloves are binding to the belly, 
although they have the property of correcting 
bad breath and an ill smell of the mouthy as 
has been observed by a learned personage in 
these verses : 

" Cloves make good the breath, 
" Bind the running belly, 
" And go comforting the stomach, 
" When the food gives it pain." 

To the anniseed they ascribe the property 
of modifying the effects of the cacao, which 
they say is cold. The anniseed, being re- 
puted warm in the highest degree, was em- 
ployed against the diseases called cold. 

" Anniseed by sovereign virtue, 

" Comforts the weary limbs; 

" It drives away accumulated ills 

" By the sole effect of its grain. 

" The spleen and the ill-tasting mouth, 

" The gross focus of mutinous winds, 

" The womb and the intestines, 

"And other parts affected, 

" Find themselves relieved by it." 

The chocolate made with hazelnuts or al- 
monds was generally more esteemed than that 
made with Indian corn, provided, however, 
that these fruits were properly prepared. 



50 HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE. 

" Almonds taken by measure 
" Afford a sweet and wholesome food ; 
" But taken when they are not ripe, 
" Occasion nothing but torment." 

A tonic effect upon the stomach and bowels 
is still ascribed to hazelnuts, as well as hinder- 
ing the vapours of the digestive tube from 
mounting to the head : 

" The hazelnut engenders bile, 

" It keeps the belly shut: 

" When roasted, it obstructs 

" And represses the pent-up air, 

" That it may not mount up to the head 

"And occasion some tempest therein." 

This is the reason, says Marchena, (the 
Spanish author translated by Moreau, from 
whom we borrow these documents and these 
verses, so curious in form and ideas) that 
hazelnuts are useful to those ivho have vitosites 
(winds) and fumes that mount from the hypo- 
chondres to the brain, tvhere they occasion dis- 
turbed dreams and disagreeable imaginations. 

Chocolate made with Indian corn is con- 
sidered unwholesome, on account of the windy 
properties of this grain. 

" Indian corn in drying occasions melancholy, 
" Applied to the body, freezes and mortifies it." 



HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE. 51 

The Indians disapprove less of cinnamon ; 
so there are few alimentative substances into 
which it is not put in pretty large quantities. 
There are in these verses the virtues that they 
ascribe to it : 

" Cinnamon is good for the urine, 

" Strengthening the reins that produce it ; 

" It brightens the eyes, and averts the destruction 

" Of violent poison." 

Rene Moreau informs us that the Indians 
had in his time many ways of taking choco- 
late. Their most generally adopted method 
was to mix it with atolle, a kind of pap of In- 
dian meal ; they further diluted it with sugar 
and water, in a cup of xarica, or coco, called 
tecomate, and swallowed it all hot. Lastly, 
after having let it dissolve in water, they add- 
ed some broth to it, then put it. over the fire 
until it thoroughly boiled, and then, when it 
had sufficiently cooled, they drank it as usual. 

The Indians ascribe a refreshing virtue to 
chocolate. On feast days, and in the midst of 
their rejoicings and public games, it is with 
chocolate that they moderate the internal fire 
of their heated organs. — " When I went to 
visit the sick who called for medical aid," says 



52 HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE. 

Rene Moreau, " if I asked for a drink to quench 
the thirst and dryness of my throat, the rela- 
tions or friends of the family always offered 
me a cup of chocolate, which accomplished the 
task of quenching thirst and cheering one up 
marvellously well." 



a a a 

a a a a a 

a a a a en a a 

a a a a a 

a a a 



PART SECOND 



CHAPTER I. 



OF COFFEE IN THE HYGIENIC POINT OF 
VIEW. 

THE use of coffee is now so extensive 
throughout all classes, with the aris- 
tocrat as with the proletary, with the artizan 
as with the annuitant, that it is indispensable 
to know 

1st. Its history in the hygienic point of view ; 

2ndly. Its action upon man in health; 

3rdly. Its efficacy upon man in sickness ; 

4thly. Its effect upon different temperaments ; 

5thly. Its influence upon the moral nature. 

1st. History of Coffee. In the arabic 
language the word coffee signifies strength, 
vigour; according to Jussieu it derives its 
origin from caouche, which is the name given 
by the Turks to the same drink. In 1652, 



54 HISTORY OF COFFEE. 

there was in London but one man, a Greek 
by birth, that carried on the art of preparing 
Coffee. In 1669, its use was introduced into 
France by Soliman Aga, Ambassador of the 
Ottoman Porte. The grains, and the manner 
of preparing it were known before the plant 
itself. The first coffee tree that appeared at 
the Garden of Plants in Paris was given in 
1713, by Besson, Lieutenant General of Ar- 
tillery, to Louis XIV. In 1720, a young cof- 
fee tree, raised in the green -house of the Gar- 
den of Plants, was transplanted to the Antilles 
by Declieux, who, during his passage, depriv- 
ed himself of a part of his water to water the 
plant that he carried. It is to the pains of 
this traveler that we" owe the cultivation of 
coffee at Martinico, St. Domingo, Guada- 
loupe and the other American islands. — The 
coffee tree is about twenty feet high, its leaves 
are oval, green and shining, and its flowers 
white, bordering upon yellow, diffuse one of 
the most agreeable odours. The berries, or 
fruit, are covered with two envelopes. In the 
East they make a drink of them, held in great 
esteem, known by the name of coffee a la Sul- 
tana. In Europe they use the peeled grains 
exclusively. Coffee, as commerce supplies us 



HISTORY OF COFFEE. 55 

with it, furnishes on analysis an aromatic prin- 
ciple, a concrete essential oil, some mucilage, 
undoubtedly proceeding from the action of 
warm water upon the fecula, some resin, a 
very small quantity of albumen, an extractive 
coloring matter, and an acid, gallic, according 
to Mons. Cadet, and kinic, according to Dr. 
Grindel. — Like all transplanted trees, the cof- 
fee tree has more or less lost its primitive vir- 
tues. Of the many qualities of coffee, the 
most esteemed is that sent to us from the city 
of Mocha, in the environs of which it is best 
naturalized. According to Mons. Cadet de 
Gaissecourt, the best coffee is that which is 
made by the mixture in equal parts of the 
ground Bourbon coffee and Martinico. 

2ndly. Its action upon man in health. 
" This liquor, taken warm," says Mons. A. 
Richard, " is an energetic stimulant ; it has all 
the advantages of spiritous drinks, without any 
of their bad results ; that is to say, that it pro- 
duces neither drunkenness nor all the acci- 
dents that accompany it. It excites in the 
stomach a feeling of comfort, a stimulation 
that is not slow in extending through all the 
economy. The movements of the heart and 



56 HISTORY OF COFFEE. 

the blood vessels are more developed and more 
frequent; the muscular contractions easier." 
Dr. Colet disapproves of the use of coffee tak- 
en in great quantity for too long a time. 
u To the gastralgia that it occasions, is united, 
(he says) after a variable space of time, a 
kind of shivering, a trembling in the left side 
of the breast, an uncomfortable stitch in front 
of this region, accompanied by pain in breath- 
ing, and in addition a general excitement, the 
characteristics of which are analogous to those 
of incipient intoxication. If, in this state, the 
use of coffee is persevered in, greater uneasi- 
ness follows, the hands and the feet are seized 
with an icy coldness, and with a cold sweat. 
There is besides a feeling of uncomfortable 
coldness in the back part of the head. Some- 
times these symptoms become more serious, 
and then follow shiverings of that part of the 
skin covered with hair, and intense head ache 
and vertigos; the step becomes tottering, the 
pulse feeble and irregular, suffocation is im- 
minent, and is accompanied with insensibility 
and convulsions. The pain of the stomach 
gives place to violent spasms, the movements 
of the heart become painful and like strong 
palpitations: sometimes, on the contrary, the 



HISTOKY OF COFFEE. 57 

action of this organ relaxes to the point of 
occasioning fainting." 

" I have seen," says Dr. Cottereau, " some 
young persons who had taken excessive doses 
of coffee to excite them to labour, fall into a 
state of stupidity, lose their appetite, and grow 
thin in an astonishing manner." 

3rdly. Its effect upon man in sickness. 

Coffee is reputed the antidote par excellence 
against fulness of the head and the megrims. 
This virtue, which the vulgar ascribe to it, is 
not exaggerated so far as relates to complaints 
of the head engendered by debility of the sto- 
mach or intestines. When, on the contrary, 
there is over excitement in these organs, coffee 
is rather injurious. It is also salutary in cases 
of drunkenness that completely prostrates the 
individual. — Mons. J. Roques forbids it in in- 
flammatory diseases, and proves its efficacy 
against poisonings by opium, herbane, bella- 
dona, the prickly apple, and certain mush- 
rooms, and in cases of asphyxia caused by 
charcoal lit in a close room. Mons. A. Rich- 
ard forbids it to persons affected with the piles, 
and Tissot to those affected with chronic dis- 
eases. A physician of Paris, Mons. Ratier, 



58 HISTORY OF COFFEE. 

alleges, according to the experiment that he 
performed upon himself, that opium and cof- 
fee taken together each exert separately the 
action that is proper to it. However that may 
be, it is well known that the effects of opium 
are successfully resisted by a strong infusion 
of pure coffee. Mons. Orfila says, in his 
Treatise on Toxicology, that coffee dimin- 
ishes the effects of opium without decompos- 
ing it in the stomach. Ringle, in a letter that 
he wrote to Percival, informed him that the 
attacks of periodical asthma yielded to an 
ounce of the decoction of coffee in a glass of 
water, repeated every quarter or half hour 
Dr. Floger, who was subject to this malady, 
found himself quite well by this means at the 
close of his days. The Egyptian women era 
ploy it to regulate their courses. Mons. J 
Roques recommends it to women who are out 
of order, or affected with the green sickness 
to the gouty, to the inhabitants of moist coun 
tries, and to those exposed to the epidemic dis 
eases which prevail in marshy places. Cof- 
fee often preserves from attacks of apoplexy 
individuals who are constitutionally predis 
posed to this disease. Mallebranche relates 
in the Memoires of. the Academy of Sciences 



HISTORY OF COFFEE. 59 

fa?- the year 1702, the history of an apoplectic 
who owed his preservation to clysters com- 
posed of a strong decoction of coffee. Mons. 
Martin Solon, employs it with success in ty- 
phoid fever, to dispel the drowsiness, the pros- 
tration, and the stupor, (in doses of from 8 to 
15 grammes* in 500 grammes of water, at 
the moment when the febrile action is least 
intense.) Musgrave gives it as a very good 
sedative in the attacks of asthma that come 
unexpectedly in gouty persons. — Bradley con- 
siders it as an excellent preservative against 
contagious diseases, and even against the 
plague. In 1805, a time when dangerous 
fevers prevailed at Bordeaux, Dr. Coutanceau 
witnessed the increase perceptibly diminished 
by the use of coffee. Professer Gindel, who 
made trial of it at the clinical establishment 
of the Imperial University of Dorpot, in Russia, 
considers coffee equal to bark in intermittent 
fevers. Of eighty whom he thus treated, a 
few only withstood it: two ounces of powder 
are enough. Lastly, it is with coffee that 
Lanjone checked the most obstinate diarrhoea. 



* About nineteen grains. 



60 HISTORY OF COFFEE. 

In the Dictionary of Medical Sciences, men- 
tion is made of a lady, the mother of ten chil- 
dren, who lost nine of them by a colliquative 
diarrhoea. The tenth was about to fall a vic- 
tim to the same complaint, bark passed from 
it unaltered, and all remedies were power- 
less, when coffee restored the child to the 
most perfect health. At first a little gum 
adragante, or extract of tourmentille, was ad- 
ded; then for nine weeks they gave it pure. 

4thly. Its effects upon different tem- 
peraments. The use of coffee agrees per- 
fectly well with certain temperaments, as it 
is injurious to others. There are persons who 
are not only well with it, but who cannot de- 
prive themselves of it. There are some, on 
the contrary, in whom it occasions obvious 
derangements. In addition to their sleep's 
being disturbed, they are a prey to a general 
agitation, that is only allayed after a greater 
or less lapse of time; but if sometimes, by the 
effect of habit, the temperament gets the bet- 
ter of it, there are also some constitutions that 
experience violent attacks from it. We read 
in Mons. Londe's Elements of Hygiene, 
"The effects of coffee as a digestive are gene- 



HISTORY OF COFFEE. 61 

rally known. Owing to the iron that it con- 
tains in a pretty perceptible quantity, it might 
be advantageously given in small doses to 
pallid persons and lymphatics, in whom the 
formation of blood is ill performed and slug- 
gish. It is given to overcome the overwhelm- 
ing action of too high a temperature : a regu- 
lation of the Royal Navy, prescribing the 
distribution of it to the crew in the morning 
as soon as the vessel has passed the tropic. 
Moreover, its use in irritable persons occasions 
paleness, increases leanness, and hastens ex- 
haustion. In weak persons, to whom it is 
prejudicial, it increases feebleness, renders 
them liable to be easily affected by morbific 
influences, and gives rise to agitations of the 
stomach. To these symptoms is sometimes 
added a sensation of swelling in the epigastric 
and abdominal region, suffocations, gastral- 
gias and melancholy, and among women al- 
most always running from the genital organs." 
Dr. Pomme says that he attended a young 
nun, tormented by violent stomach-aches, faint- 
ings and spasms, from the excessive use of 
coffee. — Mons. J. Roques forbids it to persons 
endowed with a very decided nervous tempera- 
ment, and of an irritable character; Mons. 



62 HISTORY OF COFFEE. 






Richard gives the same advice to nervous 
persons. 

According to these counsels, given by men 
of skill, it is easy to comprehend that coffee 
is sometimes more injurious than the great 
consumption of it would seem to indicate. 
Thus, how many persons are there who would 
know the cause of a disease not understood, 
and would be less disordered if they thorough- 
ly knew the effects of this liquor, and the cir- 
cumstances in which it cannot fail to be in- 
jurious. 

Less severe than the founder of homoeopathy, 
Mons. Hanneman, who compares it to the most 
violent poisons, we do not wish to anathema- 
tize, as he does, the use of coffee, and to pro- 
hibit it to every one without exception. Not 
to draw down upon our head hatred the more 
intense, inasmuch as it would be dictated by 
interest, and in conformity with the masters 
of science, we proclaim that coffee is beneficial 
to persons of a lymphatic or bilious tempera- 
ment, provided it is not taken to excess. San- 
guine or nervous persons, but who are not 
very decidedly so, may also use it, with more 
reserve, however, than the others. But in de- 
spite of all present and future venders of the 



HISTORY OF COFFEE. 63 

so much vaunted Mocha, were they even to 
sue us for defamation, we proclaim their 
liquor eminently injurious, especially when 
taken in too great quantity, and for too long a 
time, to all those who have received from 
nature a decidedly nervous or sanguine tem- 
perament; to young women of delicate con- 
stitutions and of a thin body, in whom the 
nervous system is greatly developed, and above 
all, to irritable, puling children, who offer less 
resistance to the sad consequences of such an 
abuse. 

5thly. Its influence upon the moral 
nature. The action of coffee upon the cere- 
bral organ is not less than upon the other 
organs. Under its influence, the moral and 
intellectual faculties are more lively and more 
active, says Mons. Richard. The fancy is 
exalted, the imagination is excited. Hence 
that inclination, that imperious necessity even, 
that is felt in persons of an indolent tempera- 
ment, for lashing the blood and exciting the 
lazy nerves to predispose the brain, the in- 
strument of the soul, for labour and invention. 
Coffee is very useful to men of letters ; so they 
make great use of it. They are often indebt- 



64 HISTORY OF COFFEE. 

ed to it for that brilliant eloquence that is the 
ornament of their style.* It is to its influence 
that the orator sometimes owes his fine im- 
provisations. Look at the celebrated Mira- 
beau's harangues, full of fire: by day in the 
tribune he hurls against his adversaries the 
thundering diatribes that he has prepared by 
night in cups of coffee, whose strength he in- 
creased a hundred fold by alcohol and rum. 
His antagonist, the Abbe Maury, was equally 
friendly to the intellectual drink."|" It is with 
coffee that the bureaucrate dissipates uneasi- 
ness of body and languor of mind. It is 
to the clashing of half cups that the working 
populace refreshes itself in low smoky halls 
from the sweats of the day, and conspires 
against kings. 



* Without coffee I have only the soul of an oyster," 
wrote an authoress, who, according to J. J. Rousseau, 
united the pen of Voltaire to the mind of Leibnitz. 

t It is not without reason (says Cabahis) that some 
writers have called coffee an intellectual drink. The 
use that artists, men of letters, and men of learning 
make of it, is only established after multiplied observa- 
tions, and very certain proofs. 



OF COFFEE. 65 

But, unfortunately, it is not without great 
prejudice to mind and body that man procures 
such over-excitements. After them come pros- 
tration, sadness, and exhaustion of the moral 
and physical forces ; the mind becomes ener- 
vated, the body languishes. To a rich imagi- 
nation succeeds a penury of ideas ; and if the 
consumer does not stop, genius will soon give 
place to stupidity. 

Yet, we hasten to say it, we have not often 
to deplore such sad consequences. Men of 
letters are not always the victims of the spirit 
of ambition that urges them to ascend as high 
as possible, to the injury of their health and 
their life. The counsels of friendship, and the 
precepts of science, cannot be wanting to those* 
whose works do honour to their country. Be- 
sides, all are not of a temperament that ex- 
cludes the use of a drink, that, in addition to 
being, agreeable to them, may also be useful. 
Voltaire and Fontanelle took much coffee, and 
yet they died very old. According to Zimmer- 
man, coffee is less injurious in beer drinking 
countries. I have seen, says he, at Gottingen, 
many Germans swallow twenty cups of coffee 
without suffering any thing from it, 

F 



66 of coffee. 

Different changes produced in cof- 
fee. That our subject may be thoroughly 
treated, we cannot conclude without mention- 
ing, that coffee taken mixed with milk, or even 
in the shape of cqf6-au-lait, as it is called, is 
a bad nourishment, especially when used for 
a long time. This kind of breakfast, which 
they call highly agreeable and very nourish- 
ing, is bilious, and ends by cloying the sto- 
mach; there are even persons whose digestive 
organs it so greatly debilitates, that it gives 
them fluxes, which only cease with the use of 
such sustenance. Sanguine and irritable tem- 
peraments may indulge in it oftener than bili- 
ous and lymphatic constitutions. 

4 

Pure milk. — As to the action of milk upon 
the health and the moral nature, hear what 
the celebrated Cabanis has said of it: 

" Milk, which I consider as food, and not as 
a drink, may produce very different effects, 
according to the primitive temperament and 
the accidental state in which the animal econo- 
my may be at the moment when it is used. 
In the changes that milk itself undergoes by 
artificial preparations, it becomes capable of 



OF COFFEE. 67 

acting in a manner that does not at all accord 
with its own nature. Fresh and pure milk 
acts upon the whole system as a direct, and 
not-stupifying sedative; it moderates the cir- 
culation of the humours; it imparts to the 
organs a pecular calm; it disposes the organs 
of motion to repose. Through its influence 
the ideas seem to become clearer, but they 
have little activity: the inclinations are peace- 
ful and gentle, but in general they want ener- 
gy; and though this easy aliment keeps up 
a sufficient amount of strength, it makes all 
the indolent tastes predominate : one thinks lit- 
tle, desires little, does little. 

Such are the facts that persons have ob- 
served in themselves, who, on account of ill 
health have passed at once from a more stimu- 
lating kind of life to pure milk diet, and who, 
consequently, have been the better able to re- 
cognise the real influence of the latter kind of 
food in this sudden and total change. It may 
be believed that these effects depend immedi- 
ately upon the feebleness or obscurity of the 
impressions that the milk produces upon the 
stomach, and on the diminished action of these 
viscera, and the whole digestive system; they 
result, perhaps, though indirectly, and by a 



68 OF COFFEE. 

series of more remote impressions, from the 
emulsive nature of this food : for all kinds of 
milk contain, in different proportions, oil, sim- 
ple mucilage, and gluten feebly animalized, 
sufficiently combined to hinder their undergo- 
ing any special degeneration all at once, but 
not sufficiently so to make them susceptible 
to the degeneration peculiar to more complete 
combinations of the same principles. 

"But in certain temperaments and certain 
states of disease, the use of milk produces 
particular effects, very different from those 
which we have just recognised in it in general. 
Sometimes it causes melancholy affections, 
which, when they assume a chronic character, 
soon bring in their train all the disorders of 
the imagination, and all the aberrations of the 
will that we have so often said were peculiar 
to them. Still oftener it is followed by very 
fatal putrescent indigestions, or bilious degene- 
rations, obstructions in the liver, the spleen, 
and the whole hypochondriac system, which 
in time produce great injury to many import- 
ant functions. 

" It is not my business to specify (continues 
Cabanis in his Memoire on the influence of 
Regime upon the moral habits,) all the differ- 



OF COFFEE. 69 

ent effects of fresh and pure milk, nor the cir- 
cumstances in which each of these effects may 
take place; I will content myself with observ- 
ing that this food, which the common practice 
makes the principal remedy in slight diseases 
of the chest, often becomes very injurious in 
them, and that it almost always requires, even 
when its use may be advantageous, great cir- 
cumspection in the choice of the time and 
manner of employing it. I will add, that, 
though easily digested, milk is better suited, 
in general, to persons who take much exercise, 
than to those who lead a sedentary life. It 
may, besides, become a real poison to bilious 
subjects, and those whose hypochondres are 
habitually filled with wind; and it is rarely 
suited to men whose moral nature is very ac- 
tive, and all whose vital functions are found 
united with continued and lively sensations. 
Lastly, milk, like the farinaceous substances, 
supplies copious and invigorating nourishment ; 
like them, it imparts sluggishness to the mus- 
cular movements, whose organic force it ap- 
peared suited to preserve, but it does not blunt 
the sensibility in so thorough and lasting a 
way; it only moderates its action and con« 



70 OP COFFEE. 

fines itself to lowering the tone of the sensitive 
system." 

Coffee of chick-peas and of succory 
have been in fashion for some years. The 
first is refreshing and suited to sanguine tem- 
peraments; the second is depurative, and 
agrees with the bilious ; taken fasting it pro- 
motes appetite, and taken after meals it facili- 
tates digestion without causing any excitement. 

To say every thing finally respecting coffee, 
here is the process that a German physician, 
Mr. Giacomini, employs to purge children, 
without their knowing it. He infuses from 
eight to ten grammes of senna in half a cup of 
coffee. Thus prepared, this purgative sub- 
stance loses its bad taste, and is no less effi- 
cacious. The secret is not to be despised. 

Grown persons may purge themselves by 
the same means; only doubling the dose of 
senna. 



CHAPTER II. 



OF TEA. 



THIS kind of drink, which some con- 
noisseurs take in great bowls on the 
eve of a feast day, in order to be the better 
able to do it honour, and which others, on the 
contrary, employ afterwards to free them- 
selves from an overplus of nourishment, whose 
digestion is too tedious, has virtues proclaimed 
by some, and denied by others. These prefer 
coffee to it, those extol it as the liquid par ex- 
cellence. "This useless leaf, (says Mons. 
Merat) as unfit for nourishment as to satisfy 
any real enjoyment, has not the less changed 
the customs of nations, modified the relations 
of peoples, and even overturned empires : the 
independence of North America dates from an 
impost that the mother country wished to lay 
upon tea. We find the explanation of this 
singularity, at least for our Europe, when we 
reflect that tea assists man in supporting his 
greatest enemy, ennui, and in diminishing the 



72 OF TEA. 

most troublesome of his labours, the spending 
of time." 

Tea is a shrub of middling height ,• it is cul- 
tivated in Japan, China, India and Brazil. The 
leaves alone are used. The word tea comes 
from theh, a provincial word of Fokien. The 
Mandarins call it tcha ; the Japanese, tsjaa. 

Upon being analysed, these leaves contain 
gum, tannin, albumen, woody substances, salts, 
a little essential oil, and a resin soluble in al- 
cohol, with a very agreeable odour of tea. It 
is impossible to imagine the great quantity 
of tea that has been consumed during a great 
length of time. Here is a report that we have 
seen in a scientific work: 

Between 1772 and 1780, seventy-nine En- 
glish vessels brought 50,759,451 pounds of 
tea: one hundred and seven vessels of differ- 
ent European nations, brought 118,783,811 
pounds of it. Thus in the space of eight 
years 169,543,262 pounds of tea have been 
brought by the vessels of different peoples. In 
this account is not comprised what has been 
smuggled, and what has been brought into 
Russia by land. In estimating the price of 
each pound of tea at six francs, which is the 



OF TEA. 73 

lowest price, it is about a milliard for the eight 
years, that is to say, about 125 millions per 
annum. — In 1805, more than seven hundred 
thousand weight entered into France alone, ac- 
cording to a return of the custom-houses. It 
is not yet a century since the English Com- 
pany sold annually not more than fifty thou- 
sand weight of it. Now the sales of this 
single Company amount to twenty millions 
of pounds weight. 

Teas of good quality are preserved for a 
long time in tight and opaque vessels. The 
Chinese do not use it until a year after its pre- 
paration. 

If we may believe certain chroniclers, it 
was Duhalde and Lecomte, Missionaries to 
China, who taught us the manner of using tea 
leaves. 

The most esteemed present that the Chinese 
can make each other, is tea brought from Eu- 
rope. This is explained by the improvement 
that it experiences in the voyage. Father 
Benoit, Missionary to Pekin, in boasting to 
Delatour of the advantage of the transportation 
of tea into Europe, said to him: "You do 
not know how much the climate changes 
things: rhubarb, which is corrosive at Pekin, 



74 OF TEA. 

and which the physicians dare not use without 
care, is in France a mild purgative." 

Action op tea upon man in health. 

According to Mons. Martin-Solon, the action 
of tea varies according to the strength of the 
infusion and the kind of leaves that are used 
in equal doses ; the green produces more mark- 
ed effects than the black : the latter, more de- 
prived of its sharp and poisonous principles, 
and less irritating, is more esteemed by the 
people of the North. The green, endowed 
with a greater energy, is preferred in France, 
England and Holland. If we may confide in 
what the Chinese say, there is no virtue that 
we can deny to tea. It is a real panacea for 
this people: according to them it is a cordial 
par excellence, it removes head-aches, pre- 
vents vertigoes, strengthens the limbs, diffuses 
a gentle heat throughout the body, refreshes 
the spirits, removes vapours and cephalgic 
complaints, cures the dropsy, colds, catarrh, 
diseases of the liver and spleen, the cholic, 
etc; but there is, says Mr. Murray, more bold- 
ness than truth in these assertions. 

In the time of Boerhaave, Holland resounded 
with very animated discussions, occasioned 



OF TEA. 75 

by tea. Crandoen and Bontckoe, who had 
much extolled it, were accused of having too 
much consulted, in their writings, the interests 
of the India Company. Boerhaave combated 
these two physicians, and compelled them to 
restrain the use of tea within wise limits. Zim- 
merman recommends this drink to those who 
are obliged to expose themselves to the cold, 
and who then remain within doors, all be- 
numbed. They thus prevent the bad effects 
of checked perspiration, and soon feel the op- 
pression and languor that result from it to 
cease. According to the same author, the use 
of tea is more injurious than that of coffee; its 
moderate use removes the heaviness and af- 
fections of the head, excites the action of the 
stomach, and sharpens the appetite. " I take 
it (says he) twice a day, but only two cups at 
a time ; in this way, it does not inconvenience 
me. Two cups more weaken me, excite in 
me hypochondriac movements, tremblings, 
suffocations, and a certain timidity that is 
insupportable to me. I see the same thing 
happen to those who are well, but of feeble 
constitutions, when they take more of it than 
usual." 



76 OF TEA. 

Effects of tea in certain diseases. 

According to Dr. Begin, tea is used in cases 
where it is necessary to facilitate digestion, 
and when this function is deranged. By its 
exciting action it frees the intestines from the 
overcharge of food that they have received. 
Tea excites perspiration. It has been recom- 
mended in attacks of some diseases of the skin, 
and in chronic rheumatism, doubtless, on ac- 
count of its diaphoretic virtue. Those who 
have supposed it to possess an astringent pro- 
perty, as Mons. Geoffroy, have recommended 
it in fluxes and the dysentery. For the same 
reason it has been proposed in decoction in- 
stead of infusion, because it is then more ac- 
tive against poisoning by arsenic, as bark and 
nut-galls are given. Mr. Percival recommends 
it as calming nervous affections; but it may 
be easily understood that it would be injurious 
in those arising from excitement, and salutary 
only in those proceeding from debility. Tea 
has been considered as able to prevent the 
stone, and to dissolve it if it exists. Then- 
Rhyne affirms that he has never seen calculi 
in the bladder at Japan; Koenfer says that he 
has never observed the stone, nor even the 



OF TEA. 77 

gravel among tea-drinkers; but facts to the 
contrary are too numerous among the English 
to admit of this opinion. Lastly, tea has been 
regarded as a good remedy against weak sight 
and nervous affections of the eyes. Haller 
says that it promotes perspiration, prevents 
sleep, and lightens the overcharged stomach. 

Its influence on the moral nature. 

Mons. Martin-Solon says that tea excites the 
nervous system in a remarkable manner, at 
least in most subjects; that it increases the 
activity of the mind, disposes it to gaiety, 
drives away sleep, and produces in all the 
members a kind of agitation that demands mo- 
tion. The author who has put forth such an 
opinion, has doubtless based it upon facts; so 
let us accord it all the respect that it deserves. 
But calling to mind, as to this subject, what 
Zimmerman has said, we are led to believe 
that Mons. Martin-Solon meant to speak of 
cases in which tea was taken in large quanti- 
ties, or by very irritable persons. 

Mons. Lemery thus expresses himself: 
"Tea taken in moderate quantity, like most 
of the exciting, aromatic and slightly poison- 
ous substances, produces a momentary excite- 



78 OF TEA. 

merit in the ideas, augments the mental powers, 
gives activity and development to thought, and 
produces hilarity and contentment." We might 
here reproduce our first objection, and even 
fortify it by new commentaries ; but we con- 
fine ourselves, not to prolong the matter too 
much, to the reflection of Mons. Merat, who 
says that Mons. Lemery, in his Treatise on 
Food, cries up tea like a veritable Mandarin. 
We have no reason to conclude that the mind 
of man derives great benefit from the use of 
tea, and we are tempted to believe that when 
Haller wrote that tea gave a certain poetic 
fire, he thought that he was at the article 
Mocha, or that the pen turned in his fingers. — 
Coffee, beyond dispute, exalts the imagination 
and warms the brain, but tea seems to us al- 
together more suited to warm the stomach and 
promote digestion. We have read in the Per- 
sian Letters that coffee was formerly very 
much in fashion at Paris, by this token, that 
they even served it in all the houses where 
persons went to pass the evening, and that 
people, thanks to the influence of this liquor, 
went away convinced that they had much 
more wit than when they came. We are 
not aware that tea ever received such honours. 



OF TEA. 79 

Formerly, as at present, it was given as a di- 
gestive after meals, when they supposed the di- 
gestive organs too much distended, but never 
to give a certain gaiety to the thoughts, nor 
to give wit, nay, not even the pretence of hav- 



Bad results of the use of tea. To 
become convinced that this drink is more in- 
jurious than useful, and that if it has some ad- 
vantages even disputed, it has some injurious 
results that are undisputed, it will suffice us 
to place before the reader the following ex- 
tracts from the Great Dictionary of the 
Medical Sciences. 

" In too large doses, tea agitates the nerves, 
hastens the circulation, increases the heat of 
the body, occasions wakefulness, convulsive 
movements of the members, a kind of intoxi- 
cation, etc. It is in one word an excitant that 
should not be abused. Suited as it may be 
to those who are too fat, the lymphatic, those 
of a dull and heavy constitution, gross eaters, 
those who feed on fat, oily and slimy food, it 
is as injurious to those of a contrary condition, 
especially if they use it too frequently, and 
take it too strong. It has been remarked in 



80 OF TEA. 

China, that the great tea-drinkers are thin and 
weak, that their complexion is leaden, their 
teeth black, and that they are subject to the 
diabetes. Smith asserts that the abuse of tea 
ends by destroying the sensibility of the nerves. 
Some authors have attributed the injurious ef- 
fects of tea to the abundance of warm water 
in the infusions that oppresses the stomach. 
Cullen refutes this opinion, and thinks that 
they should be ascribed to the leaf itself." 

After this, it is not strange that the French 
abandon so willingly the use of tea to the En- 
glish. But in case one should think fit to 
have recourse to one or two cups of tea to 
remedy an indigestion, a very common thing 
in England, we advise him, like Messrs. Me- 
rat and Delens, to take tea in the proportion 
of four grammes to the demi-litre of boiling 
water. 



B 

a s a 

s a a b a 

a b a b a a B 

a b a a a 

a a a 

a 



CHAPTER III 



OF CHOCOLATE. 



THIS alimentary paste, which some per- 
sons in good health honour with their 
partiality, and which the physicians recom- 
mend to certain sick persons, deserves to be 
well known, that all may know what tem- 
peraments it suits, and in what circumstances 
it may be injurious. 

History. The word chocolate comes from 
two Mexican words; the first, choco, means 
noise; the second, lattk, or lath, means water, 
because in preparing it, the people made it froth 
in warm water. The Spaniards found it in 
use in 1520. 

Composition. Chocolate is made with the 
roasted almonds of cacao, sugar, and some 
aromatic substance. The Mexicans add to it 
ginger, pimento and cloves, which make it 
sharp and heating. Vanilla and cinnamon 
render its taste more agreeable, and its diges- 

6 



82 OF CHOCOLATE. 

tion easier. To twenty pounds of the paste 
we may put three ounces of vanilla and two 
of cinnamon. These aromatics are ground 
with the sugar that is to enter into the paste. 
In Spain they prepare a common chocolate 
with the bulb of the root of the arachis hypogo, 
or earth pistachio, and with the meal of Indian 
corn; in it the storax catamite supplies the 
place of the vanilla. Such a chocolate must 
be very heavy upon the stomach, and ill-tasted. 
Mons. Cadet de Gassicourt wrote in the Dic- 
tionary of Medical Sciences, in 1813, "An 
analogous preparation is sold at Paris under 
the name of analeptic chocolate, or sago ; it is 
the ordinary chocolate, into which has been 
put, not sago, which would make it too dear, 
but the fecula of potatoes. Quackery, which 
corrupts our food as well as our medicines, has 
also contrived to fabricate indiginous chocolate, 
without cacao or sugar, from the sugar cane. 
This composition, which is kept secret, seems 
to have for its basis roasted almonds, rendered 
more greasy by butter, and sweetened with 
grape sugar." The degree of roasting (says 
Mons. Virey,) which the paste undergoes, 
modifies the qualities of the chocolate. In 
Italy, the roasting is carried pretty far, which 



OF CHOCOLATE. 83 

makes the chocolate more bitter, and more 
aromatic. In Spain they barely dry the cacao ; 
the chocolate has less bitterness, and is more 
greasy. In France, the chocolates hold the 
middle point between these two qualities. — 
"Good chocolate, (says Mons. Fabre in his 
Dictionary of Medicine, is of a deep reddish 
colour, smooth on the surface, not presenting 
a gravelly appearance on being broken, and 
easily dissolving in the mouth, producing 
therein a feeling of freshness ; it is soluble in 
water, which it only moderately thickens, and 
this solution is overcharged with oily little 
drops." The pharmacopseia of Messrs. Henri 
and Guibourt informs us that chocolate, and 
especially that of the first quality, does not 
keep long. A little while after it is made the 
surface grows dull, and is covered with an 
efflorescence of cacao-butter; but this slight 
alteration should not cause it to be rejected. 

Means of discovering adulterations. 

"Some greedy merchants (say Messrs. Bussy 
and Boutron-Charlard) add to chocolate a 
greater or less quantity of rice-flour, or the 
fecula of potatoes. Chocolates that have un- 
dergone this fraud, have the peculiarity of 



84 OF CHOCOLATE. 

thickening water to such a degree, that on 
growing cold the liquid finally turns into a 
jelly." To discover whether the adulteration 
has been made with flour or starch, the fol- 
lowing is the method pointed out by Mons. 
Orfila : a portion of the chocolate is boiled for 
eight or ten minutes with six or seven parts of 
distilled water, in order to dissolve the fecula, 
forming part of the flour; the liquid is dis- 
coloured by means of a sufficient quantity of 
concentrated chlorine, a yellowish precipitate is 
formed; it is allowed to rest and is filtered. 
The liquor, thus clarified, is of a yellowish 
colour and contains the fecula; it becomes of 
a very beautiful blue by the addition of one 
or two drops of alcoholic tincture of iodine. 
Chocolate, unmixed with flour, treated in the 
same way produces a yellowish liquid, which 
turns to brown on the addition of the tincture 
of iodine. 

Effects of chocolate. This paste is 
very nourishing. Strong stomachs always 
bear it, but there are some that do not digest 
it without difficulty. Thence proceeds the 
custom of drinking a glass of water after it, 
which facilitates its digestion. Salutary to 



OF CHOCOLATE. 85 

very many persons, it is injurious to others. — 
" Chocolate (says Tourville, in his Treatise of 
Hygiene) is suited, as a restorative food, to the 
aged, and to weak and worn out persons, but is, 
on the contrary, generally injurious to young 
people as well as those of bilious constitutions." 

Cardinal Richelieu, says Behrens, owed to 
chocolate the restoration of his health, that had 
been greatly impaired by the hypochondria, 
that had resisted all medical means. 

Linneus relates that a young man of letters 
after having been tormented for nine years by 
the piles to such a degree that he no longer 
had any hope of being delivered, except by 
death, was cured of them by chocolate, taken 
liquid, for a year. 

The illustrious professor of Upsal says that 
he knew many women, who being affected by 
piles, owing to a sedentary life, and the im- 
moderate use of coffee, were cured of them 
by chocolate. 

Different kinds of chocolate. Some 
sick persons in a state of convalescence from 
protracted diseases feel very well with choco- 
late, when their stomach could not digest fat 
broths or animal food. With the view of re- 



86 OP CHOCOLATE. 

storing the strength, and giving tone to the or- 
gans, physicians recommend the chocolate au 
lichen, or au salep, etc. To make the first, 
this is the formula of the codex: Take Car- 
racas cacao, and cacao of the Islands, of each 
one thousand grammes ; powdered sugar, eigh- 
teen hundred and twenty grammes; jelly of 
Iceland moss, dried and deprived of its bitterness 
by two or three previous infusions, seven hun- 
dred grammes. They proceed, as for plain 
chocolate, by introducing the dry moss-jelly into 
the paste at the same time as the sugar. To 
make the chocolate au salep, they prepare it by 
incorporating exactly sixteen grammes of pow- 
dered salep into five hundred grammes of sim- 
ple chocolate, previously stiffened in a warm 
mortar, and then by putting it into a mould in 
the usual manner. — In the same way chocolate 
with tapioca, or any other fecula, is prepared. 
The ferruginous chocolate, so beneficial to 
women who are out of order, or have the green 
sickness, is prepared by adding to the paste of 
chocolate iron in the state of filings, oxide or 
carbonate. The simplest method, and one 
pretty much in use, for having ferruginous 
chocolate in families, consists in dissolving 
good chocolate used in health in iron water, 



OF CHOCOLATE. 87 

instead of making it in common water. The 
pastilles of chocolate are only vanilla choco- 
late divided before the paste grows cold, and 
rolled into that form. 

Effects upon the moral nature. The 

cerebral organ of man is influenced by the use 
of chocolate only in a secondary manner. 
This paste, not acting upon the nervous sys- 
tem, cannot react upon the brain when the 
stomach digests it without difficulty; it per- 
forms its functions as a tonic and nourishing 
aliment, without the brain's feeling any ef- 
fects from it. But when it is given at an 
improper time and deposited in a digestive 
tube too weak to elaborate it, it produces the 
same effects in the head as all alimentary sub- 
stances of difficult digestion, that is to say, it 
causes heaviness in the head and dimness of 
sight ; it is not amidst such derangements that 
one can devote himself to intellectual labours 
requiring great application of mind, and per- 
fect freedom of all the organs. 

" Chocolate (says Zimmerman) has the in- 
jurious results of an excessive nourishment for 
men of letters leading a sedentary life. Indi- 
gestible by valetudinary and feeble persons, 



88 OF CHOCOLATE. 

it often gives a false appetite rather than a 
true and natural, it stupifies me whenever I 
take it. Useful in cases of weakness, it is in- 
jurious when the viscera of the lower belly are 
threatened or attacked by obstructions, or even 
when too much blood seems to determine to 
the head." If the Spaniards are such great 
advocates of chocolate, and are so well with 
the use of it, it is because, first, they only use 
it of very good quality, and if, among them, 
the manufacturers make it of very inferior 
quality, they sell it only to the lower classes, 
and are so extremely philanthropic as to send 
it into France or elsewhere, persuaded that it 
will be considered excellent as long as it bears 
the stamp of Spanish make. The second rea- 
son, and which is a triumphant answer to those 
who might object that in France we may also 
procure very good chocolate, is, that the Span- 
iards take it in small quantities in a little cup 
not larger than an egg-shell, and that we never 
take less than a great bowl of it, always enough 
to serve for a breakfast; it may be conceived 
then, that it is not at all surprising that it pro- 
duces effects with us quite different from those 
with the Spaniards, as well upon the physical 
as the moral condition. 



NOTE. 

[The following lines were written by Mary 
Lamb, the sister of the Author of the Es- 
says of Elia.] 

THE COFFEE SLIPS. 

Whene'er I fragrant coffee drink 
I on the generous Frenchman think, 
Whose noble perseverance bore 
The tree to Martinico's shore. 
While yet her colony was new, 
Her island products but a few, 
Two shoots from off a coffee tree 
He carried with him o'er the sea. 
Each little tender coffee slip 
He waters daily in the ship, 
And as he tends his embryo trees, 
Feels he is raising midst the seas 
Coffee groves, whose ample shade 
Shall screen the dark Creolian maid. 
But soon, alas ! his darling pleasure 
In watching this his precious treasure, 
Is like to fade — for water fails 
On board the ship in which he sails. 



90 

Now all the reservoirs are shut, 

The crew on short allowance put; 

So small a drop is each man's share 

Few leavings you may think there are 

To water these poor coffee plants; — 

But he supplies their gasping wants, 

Ev'n from his own dry parched lips, 

He spares it for his coffee slips. 

Water he gives his nurslings first, 

Ere he allays his own deep thirst; 

Lest if he first the water sip, 

He bear too far his eager lip. 

He sees them droop for want of more ;• — 

Yet when they reach the destin'd shore, 

With pride the heroic gardener sees 

A living sap still in the trees. 

The islanders his praise resound; 

Coffee plantations rise around, 

And Martinico loads her ships 

With produce from those dear-sav'd slips.* 



* The name of this man was Desclieux, and the sto- 
ry is to be found in the Abbe Raynal's History of the 
settlements and trade of the Europeans in the East and 
West Indies, Book 13. 



LbJL 



